Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-16-responsibility-19-07
Last-Modified: 1997/06/08
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume Two, Chapter XIV
E. SEYSS-INQUART PARTICIPATED IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AS SET FORTH IN THE INDICTMENT.
(a) Persecution of the Jews. While Seyss-Inquart was the
Reich Governor of the Province of Austria, laws were issued
against Jews and against those who opposed the Nazi Regime
politically. As has been shown, this usually took the form
of decrees providing for the sequestration and confiscation
of the property of these so-called "enemies of the State."
In the early days of November 1938, pogroms against the Jews
took place all over the German Reich, including Austria.
These pogroms resulted from the killing of von Rath, a
diplomatic official at the German Embassy in Paris, by a
young Jew named Grynszpan. Jewish synagogues, homes and
shops were smashed and destroyed by fire. Large numbers of
Jews were arrested, jailed, or placed in concentration
camps. A partial report as to what occurred during 9
November 1938 and 10 November 1938 is found in a letter
written by the Reich Commissar for the Reunion of Austria
with the German Reich, Josef Buerckel, to Goering, dated 18
November 1938. This report reveals that the fire department
was not utilized to control the flames consuming Jewish
homes, stores, shops, and synagogues. The school children in
Vienna were given an opportunity to participate in the
demonstration "according to the order." Buerckel's report
also discloses that enormous quantities of valuables,
jewelry, and merchandise were stolen from the Jews during
these pogroms. (2237-PS)
A more detailed description of what happened in Vienna
during the 9th and 10th of November 1938 is found in the
stenographic report of a meeting on "The Jewish Question"
under the Chairmanship of Goering (1816-PS). This meeting
was held on 12 November 1938. It appears from this report
that altogether 101 synagogues were destroyed by fire 76
synagogues demolished, and 7,500 stores ruined in the Reich,
including Austria. In this same
[Page 998]
meeting, a member of the official family of Seyss-Inquart
(Reich Governor of the Province of Austria) related the
efficiency with which the Civil Administration in Austria
dealt with the so-called "Jewish Question." This official
was Fischboeck, and in his verbal report to Goering he said:
"Your Excellency,
"In this matter we have already a very complete plan
for Austria. There are 12,000 Jewish artisans and 5,000
Jewish retail shops in Vienna. Before the National
Revolution, we had already a definite plan for
tradesmen, regarding this total of 17,000 stores. Of
the shops of the 12,000 artisans about 10,000 were to
be closed indefinitely and 2,000 were to be kept open.
4,000 of the 5,000 retail stores should be closed and
1,000 should be kept open, that is, were to be
Aryanized. According to this plan, between 3,000 and
3,500 of the total of 17,000 stores would be kept open,
all others closed. This was decided following
investigations in every single branch and according to
local needs, in agreement with all competent
authorities, and is ready for publication as soon as we
receive the law which we requested in September; this
law shall empower us to withdraw licenses from artisans
quite independently from the Jewish Question." (1816-
PS)
To this Goering replied:
"I shall have this decree issued today." (1816-PS)
The stenographic report of this meeting further reveals that
the solution of the so-called "Jewish Problem" adopted in
Austria by Seyss-Inquart and his official family was most
efficient from the viewpoint of Nazi objectives. The plan
adopted in Austria became a model for the entire Reich.
(1816-PS)
A report of the Bureau of Statistics for the Provinces of
Austria on the Jewish population in Vienna and in Austria,
dated 15 December 1939, shows that after the Nazi
conspirators assumed power in Austria, the Jewish population
in that country decreased approximately 100,000.
While the reasons for the decreases in the Jewish population
of Austria would seem to be obvious, yet tangible evidence
of at least one reason is provided by Seyss-Inquart himself
in a letter written by him to Himmler, dated 4 November
1939. In substance Seyss-Inquart, while Deputy Governor
General of the Polish Occupied Territory, stated that an
official in Cracow had informed him that there was a plan to
send Jews from Vienna to Poland, whereupon he gave
instructions that such action should be carried
[Page 999]
out only in cooperation with the SD and by the SD, since he
would not permit wild-cat actions. (3398-PS)
(b) Persecution on political grounds. Seyss-Inquart has
supplied evidence that the SS in Austria was responsible for
the murder of Chancellor Dolfuss on 25 July 1934. (3425-PS)
Seyss-Inquart has also supplied evidence that his
predecessor as Chancellor of Austria, von Schuschnigg, had
been confined in a concentration camp after his forced
resignation from office. (3254-PS)
(2) Poland. The manner is which Polish Jews were treated and
given "special handling" by the Nazi conspirators, although
a matter of common knowledge, was described in detail in the
"Black Book of Poland." This document tells of the
establishment of special reservations for the Jews as well
as ghettos in various parts of Poland. The report also
relates how the Jews were starved and exterminated in large
numbers. A great portion of these crimes were committed in
Poland by the Nazis while Seyss-Inquart occupied the
position of Deputy Governor General of the Polish Occupied
Territory. (2613-PS)
During the time that Seyss-Inquart held this high office in
the Nazi government of Poland, a special decree was issued
by Frank, dated 26 October 1939, which required compulsory
labor for Jews domiciled in the General Government of
Poland. The decree was to take effect immediately and the
Jews were to be formed in forced labor groups. The execution
of the decree was placed in the hands of the Higher SS and
Police Leaders. (2613-PS)
(3) The Netherlands. Seyss-Inquart, in his capacity as Reich
Commissar of the occupied Dutch territory, bears full
individual responsibility for the execution in the
Netherlands of the Nazi program of persecution of Jews. Acts
against the Jews authorized, directed, or condoned by Seyss-
Inquart, which constitute war crimes and crimes against
humanity as defined in Article 6 (b) and (c) of the Charter,
included: stigmatization; disfranchisement; denial of civil
rights, personal liberty, and economic freedom; religious
and cultural persecution; use of organized "spontaneous
violence" against persons and property of Jews;
ghettoization; starvation; enforced labor; enslavement; mass
deportation, and annihilation.
The intentions of Seyss-Inquart with respect to treatment of
the Jews is a matter of record. In a speech before a
gathering of all workers and trades of the NSDAP at
Amsterdam on 13 March 1941 he left no doubt as to where he
stood on the Jewish question.
[Page 1000]
"The Jews are the enemy of national socialism and the
national socialistic Reich. From the moment of their
emancipation, their methods were directed to the
annihilation of the common and moral worth of the
German people and to replace national and responsible
ideology with international nihilism. The fatal meaning
of Judaism became completely clear to the German people
during the years of the world war. It was really they,
who stuck the knife in the back of the German army
which broke the resistance of the Germans, and in the
year 1918, it was they who wanted to dissolve and
decompose all national tradition and also moral and
religious beliefs of the German people. The Jews for us
are not Dutchmen. They are those enemies with whom we
can neither come to an armistice nor to peace. This
applies here, if you wish, for the duration of the
occupation. Do not expect an order from me which
stipulates this, except regulations concerning police
matters. We will beat the Jews wherever we meet them,
and those who join them must bear the consequences. The
Fuehrer declared that the Jews have played their final
act in Europe, and therefore they played their final
act." (3430-PS)
Following his assumption of office in the Netherlands on 29
May 1940, Seyss-Inquart, pursuant to the authority vested in
him as Reich Commissar of the Netherlands by the Fuehrer
decree of 18 May 1940, systematically promulgated decrees
designed to implement the Nazi program of persecution and
elimination of Jews. He promulgated a law which prohibited
the Jewish ritual slaughter of animals in the Netherlands
Occupied Territories, thus making it impossible for devout
orthodox Jews to live in accordance with their religious
dietary laws. (2705-PS)
Other anti-Semitic decrees of a like nature, all of which
were signed by Seyss-Inquart and published in the
Verordnungsblatt fuer die besetzen niederlandischen Gebiete
(VOBL), may be summarized as
Publication Date and No. of VOBL.
Summary of Subject Matter
3333-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 33, p. 546, 26 October
1940.
Order to register all businesses belonging to
Jews, joint stock corporations including either
one Jewish partner or one Jewish member in their
Board of Directors, or those of which more than
25% of the capital stock belong to Jews or those
in which half of all votes are
[Page 1001]
to be exercised by Jews, or in general, businesses
which in fact are placed under predominatingly
Jewish influence. Section 4 defines the quality of
a Jew. Property situated abroad is to be embodied
in the declaration of registration. Failure
willfully of declaration is punished by
imprisonment not exceeding 5 years and by a fine
not exceeding 100,000 guilders or either of these
penalties, while the same due to negligence
entails an imprisonment not exceeding one year or
a fine not exceeding 10,000 florins; in addition
confiscation of the property concerned may be
ordered.
3334-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 42, p. 701, 17 December
1940.
Prohibition to employ German citizens or persons
of cognate blood in Jewish households under a
penalty not exceeding one year imprisonment and a
fine of 10,000 guilders or either of these
penalties.
3323-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 6, p. 19,13 January
1941.
Registration of all persons of part or full Jewish
blood.
Sec. 2 defines as a Jew any person one of whose
grandparents was a fullblooded Jew. Any
grandparent who belonged or belongs to the Jewish
religious community is considered as such. Failure
to register entails an imprisonment not exceeding
5 years and the confiscation of property (Sec.
10).
3325-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 6, p. 99, 14 February
1941.
Limitation of registration of Jewish students in
Dutch universities and colleges.
2112-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 34, p. 655, 16 August
1941.
Obligation to register real estate, mortgages and
real property belonging to Jews, other than
farming estates and lands regulated by a previous
ordinance. Power granted to the Dutch
administration of real property to take over
directly or through persons appointed for the
purpose, the manage-
[Page 1002]
ment of Jewish real property, with the right to
alienate it in part or in whole
3326-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 39, p. 785, 20 September
1941.
Freezing of property belonging to Jews who have
emigrated from Holland which is located in
Holland.
3334-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 44, p. 846, 23 October
1941.
Prohibitions to employ a non-Jew in households
headed by a Jew or where a Jew is a member of the
family, whether permanently or temporarily but for
an unbroken term of more than four weeks. Any
contract contrary to this provision is
inoperative. Penalties for the employer:
imprisonment up to one year and a fine up to
10,000 florins.
3328-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 44, p. 841, 23 October
1941.
No Jew can exercise any profession and trade
without authorization from the administrative
authorities which may refuse it or set up special
conditions for its exercise. Administrative
authorities may order the determination or the
liquidation of any employment contract concerning
a Jew. Any employer may terminate a contract with
a Jew by giving notice on the first day of any
calendar month if the general legal provisions of
the contract provide for a longer term of notice,
or if the contract is to expire normally at a date
after 31 January 1942. An indemnity ranging from
one to six times the monthly salary of the
dismissed Jew may be, under certain circumstances,
allocated as a settlement of all claims against
the employer.
3329-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 47, p. 901, 25 November
1941.
Exclusion of Jews from Dutch Chamber of Arts in
which membership is compulsory for all those
active in the field of sculpture, architecture,
artisan arts, music, literature, theater, film
industry and the press. Prohibition for a Jew or a
person related to a Jew to be a member of an
association affiliated
[Page 1003]
with the Chamber of Arts, to found or to take part
in the foundation of such an association or to
establish a foundation or to take part in its
establishment or to benefit directly or indirectly
from its property where such associations or
foundations are affiliated with the Chamber of
Arts. Penalty: not exceeding 5,000 florins.
3325-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 11, p.211, 1 May 1942.
Exclusion of Jews from the Dutch Arbeitsfront
(N.A.F.).
3336-PS, Verordnungsblatt, No. 13, p.289, 23 May 1942.
Compulsory written declaration by Jews of claims
of any kind of which they are beneficiaries to be
made at banking firm Lippman, Rosenthal & Co.,
Amsterdam. Titles and other documents proving the
claims are to be delivered to the bank at the time
of the declaration, all rights to such claims
being vested in the above mentioned bank. The
debtor can liberate himself only in the hands of
the bank and by so doing is released. The
declaration embodies also rights on property or
chattels real, participations as in corporations
and partnerships; reversions, expectancies.
Collections of all kinds of art objects, art
articles, articles of gold, platinum, silver, as
well as polished or rough diamonds, semi-precious
stones and pearls, belonging in part or in whole,
legally or "economically" to a Jew, must be
delivered to said bank, with exception of wedding
rings and those of a deceased husband, silver
watches, used table silver, provided that each
person belonging to the family of the owner may
keep only a cover consisting of 4 pieces, a knife,
a fork, a spoon and a dessert spoon; teeth-
fillings of precious metals.
[Page 1004]
A full recapitulation of the crimes perpetrated against the
Jews by the German civil occupation authorities through the
instrumentality of orders, decrees, and laws is contained in
the statement of the Netherlands Government Commissioner for
Repatriation. (1726-PS)
The above statement is also evidence of the fact that in
February 1941 the first mass deportation of Jews from the
Netherlands took place. On that occasion 1000 Jews were
arrested and within a few months sent to Buchenwald and/or
Mauthausen. Subsequently their ashes were returned to their
relatives in Holland, against a payment of 75 florins for
each. Deportation continued until September 1943, when the
last of the Jews composed of the Jewish Council were sent to
Westerbork (Holland). Of 140,000 registered "full" Jewish
Netherlanders, 117,000 were deported to the East. (1726-PS)

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